Standing At The Mouth Of Hell
by T'Reilani
Summary: Transformers Prime/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover. Chromia's solo mission to Sunnydale, California doesn't go as planned…
1. Chapter 1

_**Standing At The Mouth Of Hell **_

**Transformers Prime/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover. Chromia's solo mission to Sunnydale, California doesn't go as planned…**

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**Hey guys, guess who decided to try a new fandom for once! Yes, I have story ADD. Yes, I will update others tomorrow. This takes place right after "Prophecy Girl" and replaces season 2. Now, I'm gonna go watch _Thor,_ and when I come back, this had better have some reviews…**

_**1: Chromia**_

The newest student of Sunnydale High was hard to miss. With long black hair pulled into a ponytail, tight dark jeans, and a blue form-fitted blouse, the young woman had caught the attention of all of the boys, and most of the girls, within twenty minutes of walking down the hall. If _she_ noticed _them_, however, it didn't show in her impassive face and rigid posture.

"She was at a military school in New Jersey before coming here," Willow informed Buffy and Xander at lunch. "She moved here to live with a cousin, I guess. At least, that's what she told me when I asked. But…"

"But?" Xander prodded. "Something didn't sit right?"

Willow sighed and poked at the unidentifiable meat on her tray. "Something about her bugs me. I think it was the eyes. They're kind of…weird. Blue. Really, really, blue."

Buffy raised one eyebrow. "Couldn't that just be contact lenses? I mean, colored contacts aren't that hard to get, and really blue eyes seem to go with her tall and dark look."

"Probably." Willow looked around for the girl, but didn't see her. "You're probably right."

Buffy patted her friend's shoulder. "I'll meet her after lunch, and if I sense anything, then we talk to Giles. Did you get her name?"

"Mia, or something like that."

"Great." Buffy stood up and grabbed her tray. "If I want to catch up with miss Mia-Blue-Eyes, I'd better do it now. Later, guys."

The dark-haired girl was already in the biology classroom, looking over a list of the books they would be using for the rest of the year. When Buffy entered, she didn't even look up.

"Hi." Buffy sat down in the desk across the aisle. "I'm Buffy Summers." When that got no response, she continued, "You're Mia, right?"

"Chromia." She had an odd accent, but an attractive, if slightly deep, voice. "Chromia Hyde."

"That's a pretty name." Buffy wondered how Willow had ever gotten this girl to talk. "Unusual."

"And 'Buffy' is normal?" Chromia looked straight at her. Willow hadn't been exaggerating about Chromia's eyes; both were a dark electric blue. Buffy had never seen anyone with eyes that color.

Well, no _humans_, at least.

The blond girl laughed to cover her discomfort. "Okay, you've got me there. Where you from?"

Chromia's odd eyes narrowed slightly. "New Jersey. Didn't you hear? I told that one girl, Willow, and expected it would be all over the school by lunch."

"Willow's not really in the…um…crowd that spreads things around," Buffy explained awkwardly. "You probably should have told Cordelia."

"Cordelia?" Chromia frowned. "That would be the one with the brown hair and dark skin, yes? And the crowd of boys following her?"

Buffy started to say that Cordelia was just tanned, but realized that compared to Chromia's pale features, the school popularity queen could be considered dark-skinned. "That's her. She'd make sure everyone knew."

"Really." Chromia sounded unsurprised. "I'll pass."

As other students started to file into the room, Buffy pulled out her biology book nervously. "Well, good to meet you, Chromia…"

"Mm-hmm."

As the harried-looking teacher made her way to the front of the room, Buffy turned to listen to the lesson. But try as she might, she couldn't shake the feeling of unease those blue eyes had given her. Nor could she ignore the fact that every now and then, Chromia would glance at her with that same totally impassive expression.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Standing At The Mouth Of Hell **_

**Transformers Prime/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover. Chromia's solo mission to Sunnydale, California doesn't go as planned…**

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**It continues! Just FYI, Chromia has her Revenge of the Fallen vehicle mode, but her personality is from G1. :) **

**_2: Speculate_**

"Bright blue eyes, you said?" Giles tapped his pencil on the table. "Have you considered the possibility that this 'Chromia' wears contacts?"

Buffy sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Giles, I know weird when I see it. Even with contacts, that's a really creepy color. Seriously, electric blue?"

Willow fiddled with the computer mouse. "That wasn't all that was weird about her, though. She says she's from New Jersey, but her accent…"

"That's right," Buffy commented. "It's definitely not American. Or British. Something's just…off."

Angel spoke up from where he was leaning against the stair railing. "As in 'supernatural' off?"

"Yeah." Buffy looked at her Watcher. "Giles, have you ever heard of something with that particular eye color?"

Giles shrugged, reaching for a book. "Possibly an incubus; they're rumored to have very intense colors. But I've never heard of one actually posing as a human for very long."

"What about a vampire with…really strange tastes in fashion?" As everyone stared at him, Xander raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay! Just guessing."

"Could be, if she hadn't been here in broad daylight." Angel gestured to the closed shades. "Take my word for it, she's no vampire."

"Excuse me."

The entire group turned to see a dark-haired girl standing in the doorway. "Chromia!" Buffy yelped. "Uh, hi."

"I apologize. I didn't mean to startle you." Chromia turned to Giles. "Are you the librarian? I was told I could find some books I was looking for here."

Giles was clearly taken aback by her appearance. "Ah – yes. Any particular subject you were interested in?"

"Local history." Chromia removed a notebook from her backpack. "I like to know as much as possible about the area I live in. I've already searched the Internet, but I believe your books may have more information."

"I quite agree." Giles nodded nervously and pointed to the correct section of the library, up the stairs. "Local history is in the back room. How long do you think you'll need? As you know, it's after school hours."

"About fifteen minutes should be sufficient." Chromia started up the stairs. "I will check out anything I find particularly interesting."

As soon as she was out of sight, Giles muttered quietly, "Alright, now I know what you meant. Those eyes are…unsettling."

"Told you." Buffy grabbed a piece of paper, scribbled _VAMPIRE?_ on it, and handed it to Angel, who promptly shook his head and wrote down the answer.

_No. After she leaves. _

A torturous fifteen minutes later, Chromia descended the stairs with an armload of books. A few quick scribbles on cards later and she had checked them out. "Thank you." Picking up her backpack, she left the room quickly.

"Okay, what's up with her?" Xander looked at Angel. "Resident supernatural expert commentary, please."

Angel glanced at the still swinging door. "No circulation."

"What?" Giles raised an eyebrow. "Explain."

"She's…insubstantial." Angel pointed to Buffy. "See, from here I can sense your pulse. The girl who just left didn't have one. No blood, no pulse. Nothing."

"You're kidding me." Buffy shook her head. "What does that make her? A ghost?"

"A projection."

Outside, Chromia looked around carefully before sliding one leg over the blue motorcycle, her real body. _That was too close. I need to avoid them. Something is…off. I hope the information here explains what's going on here. _


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry about the wait…again… **

_**3: Creature**_

Safely out of sight in what remained of an abandoned motel, Chromia skimmed yet another section from the first book she had scanned to her datapad. _Impossible. Vampires, demons, ghosts…they're only human legends. Based in some form of reality once, no doubt, but some of this _has _to be speculation. _

Despite her doubts, the image of one of the humans in the school library nagged at her processor. **Apparently** a young human male, but something was off. Chromia frowned, trying to remember what it was exactly that had caught her attention. Physical appearance was normal. It was definitely the first time she had seen him. The basic scans she was constantly running had picked up no internal abnormalities –

"Wait," Chromia muttered to herself. "Wait." She quickly pulled up the results of the full-room scan for that time frame in her heads-up display. _Four living, breathing humans with normal vital signs. But there were _five_. It should have given me a warning if his vital signs were nonhuman… No. Not nonhuman,_ she realized. "Non_existent_. He didn't register as an abnormality because it's not an abnormal condition. By every possible medical diagnosis, he is _dead_. But I saw him standing, moving, talking…" She snatched the datapad and began scrolling rapidly. "What does that fit?"

Outside, a twig snapped. The Autobot femme froze, listening closely. _Probably nothing. I saw kids walking in the graveyard next door this afternoon. _But just in case, she transformed, glided back into a dark shadowy corner, and switched to holoform. Scooping up the backpack, she tiptoed to the door and peered out. Nothing.

"Ha. I'm getting paranoid." Chromia shrugged and turned away.

Then she heard the screaming. In a second, the holoform had dropped the backpack, grabbed the handgun she had invested in shortly after going into deep cover, and sprinted for the graveyard.

"Come this way!" she shouted, hoping the girl in trouble had the sense – and the ability – to run. "I'm coming! I can help you!"

Another shriek, coming from further away. _Primus, humans can be so stupid. _Her optics, filtered through the holoform as they were, struggled to pick up more than vague shadows. _And to think I laughed at the idea of a humanized technorganic. Built-in weaponry and night vision would be so useful. _Bracing her hands carefully around the handgun and hoping she had remembered all of the correct steps to make sure it fired, Chromia stalked between the headstones, checking left and right and keeping what few sensors could be translated to the holoform on high alert.

The crack of a branch behind her alerted Chromia to another presence in the nick of time. Cold, sharp-nailed fingers just barely managed to scrape her neck as the holoform hit the ground, rolling and twisting to face her opponent. It resembled a female human, given the body shape, hair, and clothing, but no human's face had ever been ridged and misshapen like this creature's, and the savage gleam in the yellow eyes resembled nothing quite so much as the stare of a predatory alien the femme had seen in a simulation at the Academy once. To make matters even more confusing, all basic scans indicated that it was dead.

Chromia filed away all relevant information in less than a second, returning her processor to the situation at hand. As the creature took a step forward, wicked-looking fangs bared, Chromia stepped back, leveled the handgun directly at its chest, and fired. The creature jolted backward slightly, brushed a hand over the bloodless wound in confusion, looked up at Chromia…and laughed. "What did you think that was going to do?" The voice was definitely female, distorted by the fangs as it was. "Please tell me that's not all you have. That would be so boring."

_Oh. Slag._ Chromia lowered the gun and eyed the creature, moving with it as it circled. "Any chance that boredom will kill you?"

"You're funny." The creature spun on one heel – how _did _it keep walking in those shoes? – and lunged for Chromia's throat with inhuman speed. Any normal human would have been pinned before they had time to react. Unfortunately for her attacker, Chromia was no normal human. Just as the claws would have connected, she deactivated the holoform, reactivated it a few inches closer, and smacked the creature across the face with the butt end of the gun. Her considerable strength combined with the surprise attack sent it staggering back, and a rapid kick sent it flying over a headstone to land with a heavy thud.

The creature picked itself up, face distorting even further in an ugly sneer. "That freaking _hurt!_"

"Good," Chromia retorted. Bracing her feet, she gripped her gun with both hands and leveled it directly at the thing's midsection. "Let's see what this does."

"It's going to do exactly what it -" The creature froze abruptly, yellow eyes widening. "Uhhhh…" The end of something sharp and pointed emerged from between the curves of her chest, small amounts of blood oozing around it. The creature managed to get out one more gasp before dissolving into a shower of dust.

_Well, that's a new one. _Chromia looked up from the dust on the ground to the figure behind it. Electric-blue eyes met lighter, human ones. The holoform's shoulders slumped in a resigned sigh.

"Hello, Buffy."


End file.
